Jeff Mitchell: City's response to homeless glacial

Jan. 16, 2013

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Under the Dome

In terms of the political science of it all, it’s been a classic to watch.

Homelessness, something which we can all agree is a profound social tragedy, is also an issue that our City Council and senior city staff are treating like the plague. This council wants to stay about 10,000 miles away from this one.

After all, homeless folks don’t tend to vote a lot and they sure don’t write fat checks to campaigns.

But local business people sure do — on both counts.

And if the council isn’t careful, it could find itself not out front on an important issue facing our city but bringing up the rear and playing catch up. Then they’ll have some ’splaining to do. (Sorry, Ricky!)

The business people involved — the good folks from the Oldtown Salinas Association — are instead out front on this issue because homelessness is impacting their bottom line and squeezing the economic lifeblood out of what’s an already struggling downtown area.

I think President Amit Pandya and his OSA people deserve kudos for taking the initiative on this issue.

To be sure, City Councilman Steve McShane — the Doogie Howser of Salinas politics — also deserves credit for his work with Pandya.

But aside from Doogie, the council has been largely silent and inactive on the issue. As a result, the panel and its senior staff, to date, deserve failing grades for their lack of a response to the issue.

What’s desperately needed now is for the city to realize that it — not some other governmental entity — is on the hot seat and that it must act quickly to help end the personal suffering and the economic fallout that homelessness creates.

To that end, the OSA will hold its second meeting on homelessness in Salinas today in the City Hall Rotunda Building. Everyone is invited to attend and express their ideas on what we can do as a community to ease homelessness and the suffering it’s causing.

The 5:30 p.m. meeting will focus on creating viable solutions to the specific problems identified at the association’s first meeting.

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Pandya said that the association received a lot of feedback during the first meeting. He said those feedback forms were tallied and analyzed, and that the results will be shared with attendees today.

The meeting will feature presentations and a Q&A and the end. It should prove interesting. Who knows? Maybe the OSA will light a fire under this council.

Miracles can happen.

Council goal session safe, predictable

It was great to hear that about 60 of you trudged out Saturday to the Cesar Chavez Library to give your council your view on the city’s goals for the new year.

According to sometime city spokesman, Spencer Critchley, the council, after hearing opening suggestions by the public, “conducted a wide-ranging, five-hour exploration of their own and their constituents’ priorities, before closing with additional public comment.”

At the end of the session, your council agreed on these incredibly broad, really safe “top priorities:”

• Economic diversity and prosperity

• Safe and livable community

• Effective government

• Infrastructure

• Quality of life.

For each category there were initial lists of specific projects, such as the Alisal Marketplace project where our new expanded police department may be housed eventually.

Those goals are all nice — but they’re also big and broad enough to drive a truck through. Sheesh.

The devil, as they say, is in the details. City Councilwoman Kimbley Craig said the session was worth the time and expense.

“You have to remember there were seven type-A personalities at the table. It’s like trying to herd cats,” Craig said. “Still, I think the session was good. It helped us clarify where we want to go.”

What I didn’t hear, by the way, was whether there was any talk of how they can make City Hall more transparent to the public. For instance, it would have been great to see one of them champion the adoption of a local sunshine ordinance.

(And, believe me, this City Hall really needs one. But, more on that one another time.)

“It was a really valuable day,” said Mayor Joe Gunter in a press release prepared by Critchley following the meeting. “By investing time and thought now, we can make the rest of year’s work much more efficient and effective.”

Let’s hope so.

This is a city that’s short on time and cash, a city that has a ton of serious problems in front of it — real problems that impact real people.

The panel plans to refine the results at its Feb. 5 meeting and then review progress toward their goals each quarter.

• Jeff Mitchell covers Salinas City Hall and local politics. Send tips or story ideas by email to: jemitchell@theCalifornian.com; or by phone: 831-754-4281. He can be heard Fridays at 8:10 a.m. on KION 1460-AM and KION 101.1-FM. You also can follow Under the Dome on Twitter at twitter.com/CalUnderTheDome.